Michelle DaSilva stands on stage with members of the Global Justice Club during one of their concert fundraisers. Photo from Michelle DaSilva
For one teacher at Harborfields High School, ensuring her students receive a proper education doesn’t stop at academics.
Michelle DaSilva has been teaching world history at the high school for years, but in 2009 she started a new venture, as advisor to the Global Justice Club.
“This club is meant to let kids know what is going on in other parts of the world,” DaSilva said in a phone interview. She said there are about 70 to 80 kids involved in the club.
The first fundraiser the club organized was to collect baby supplies after Hurricane Sandy devastated the people of Haiti in 2005.
“I had just had a baby and I kept thinking about all the woman in that developing country who didn’t have diapers, or formula,” she said. The club found a local organization that worked with an orphanage in Haiti, where the members were able to donate the $1,500 in items they received.
Since then, DaSilva said the club has gotten bigger and bigger.
In 2010, the club organized the first global justice concert, which has become the main event the group works on during the year. DaSilva described the concert as an event “fully run by the students,” that has helped the club raise more than $10,000 since it started. Members of the club hold auditions, promote the show, organize the raffle and host it, according to the teacher.
Two years into the event, DaSilva said she met Lucy Sumner, a former Harborfields teacher who traveled back to her hometown of Sierra Leone. She runs a non-profit called Magic Penny, which provides financial support for educational, economic and agricultural programs within her country.
“Now all the money goes directly to her,” DaSilva said. “She’s an amazing woman, and what’s nice is that I know exactly where the money is going. When I put it in her hands, it’s being used for the right thing.”
Global Justice has raised enough money for Magic Penny to fund the building of a school, scholarships for students, teacher training programs, and more.
Currently, DaSilva said they are raising money to help create a middle school, since the first school they raised money for only teaches children up to fifth grade.
“These students are now having to go into the city for middle school, where there is a lot of exploitation and unsafe circumstances, and their families cannot afford to travel with them,” DaSilva said.
Aside from the annual concert, the Global Justice club also organizes and participates in many other fundraisers throughout the year, including a 24-hour famine where students are sponsored…; food drives; and education campaigns — one of which was a refugee project, where members of the club turned different hallways into parts of the world where there are large refugee problems.
“We want to be thinking globally,” DaSilva said of the club, “and acting locally.”
The Mount Sinai MIddle School Community Service and Outreach Club lends a helping hand by becoming actively engaged in the community for local and national charities and organizations. Photo from Lindsey Ferraro
Raising thousands of dollars for North Shore-based and national organizations and bringing smiles to those in need of cheer is no small feat. But fifth- through eighth-graders at Mount Sinai Middle School are making a habit of it.
Lindsey Ferraro, a co-advisor for the school’s Community Outreach and Service clubs for the last three years, said students learn compassion and empathy.
“It amazes me more so every year how dedicated our club members and the school community are to bettering the world,” she said. “Our students have gone above and beyond to help out the community.”
The Mount Sinai Community Service and Outreach Club sings holiday carols at a local nursing home. Photo from Lindsey Ferraro
The club adopted a family this past holiday season, created cards for soldiers, visited the Woodhaven nursing home in Port Jefferson Station to sing holiday carols, held a clothing drive for the homeless and raised over $1,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
“You know you’re helping out someone much less fortunate than you, and it feels really good,” eighth-grader Jake Ritchie said. “It feels really good to know that I make a statement and take a stand in my community to help out.”
Ritchie, who has been a member of the club since he was in fifth grade, said the club is also collecting books for a Stony Brook book drive and helping Girl Scouts receive a bronze award. He said even his classmates lend a hand.
“They have been helping out,” he said, “We make speeches in front of our classes to encourage kids to help out. It’s a lot of fun.”
Mount Sinai Middle School Principal Peter Pramataris said he also sees students outside the club donating to the club’s causes.
“It’s always great to see the school building come together as a whole,” he said. “I reside in the district, too, and whenever there’s a family with some hardship, a loss or a health issue, the community always steps up to help each other. It’s a testament to the families we have in our community and the value system that they have from home and that we reinforce at the school. These students take their own time, and they do it unselfishly. I’m proud to be their principal.”
The club has also raised more than $2,000 in two weeks for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Pennies for Patients fund, with a week of fundraising left to go. Next, the school will be working on its Light It up Blue campaign, where members of the club will sell puzzle pieces in light of Autism Awareness Month for Autism Speaks.
The Mount Sinai Community Service and Outreach Club wraps presents raised for and donated to local families. Photo from Lindsey Ferraro
Nicole Kotarski, who has been a co-adviser for five years, said the club fosters independence and creativity.
“We’ve had several students bring us ideas if they like a particular organization, and we tell them to figure out how to make it happen,” she said, adding that she asks students to organize contact information, ideas for fundraisers and how to make the school aware of them. “The goal of our club is to make a difference in others’ lives. These students are definitely the most driven students. They’re the ones that make the effort to become actively engaged in the community.”
Ferraro and Kotarski agreed that the students are doing an amazing job, and they’re proud of the student’s hard work and effort.
“They really do care and they’re learning — they’re not in it for anything else,” Ferraro said. “They do such a good job raising awareness throughout the school … and really making, especially the people around the holidays, feel loved and cared for.”
That’s what makes being a part of the club so special for fifth-grader Matthew Stancampiano.
“I like doing this because it helps me help the less fortunate people in our community,” he said. “We can accomplish bigger things in a group. It makes me feel happy that I am able to help other people.”
Harborfields High School. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
Harborfields High School Principal Rory Manning was unanimously approved for a promotion by the board of education Wednesday.
He will be taking over as the assistant superintendent for administration and human resources. Francesco Ianni currently holds the position, though he has been tabbed to take over as district superintendent as of January 2017, when the current superintendent, Diana Todaro, retires.
“Dr. Manning, I have to say has performed a truly exceptional job in his position of high school principal,” Todaro said Wednesday at a board of education meeting at Oldfield Middle School. “When we began to seek a candidate for the position of assistant superintendent for administration and human resources we immediately, without hesitation, considered Dr. Manning for this position. Following several interviews and discussions our decision was confirmed, and it was clearly evident to us that he was the best candidate for this position and there was no need for us to conduct the so-called ‘nationwide search.’”
Manning has been the high school principal at Harborfields since 2012. Prior to that he spent time at Sachem High School East as both a principal and assistant principal from 2006 through 2012. He received a doctorate in education, educational administration and supervision from St. John’s University in 2011.
“I’d like to apologize to the board, because today when the proposition to hire Dr. Manning as our assistant superintendent comes up, I’m breaking protocol and saying a resounding ‘yay,’” student representative to the board of education Trevor Jones said, prior to the unanimous vote to approve Manning. “I know my vote doesn’t count, but that’s a fantastic man sitting over there.”
Jones’ address concluded with a standing ovation, and a hug from Manning.
Harborfields High School Principal Rory Manning. File photo
Manning was praised by Jones, Todaro and members of the community for initiatives relating to educational technology that he has been a part of while at Harborfields.
“It absolutely blew me away,” Manning said about the kind words shared about his new position in the district, and the work that he’s done so far. “Trevor Jones and our students, they’re just outstanding and Trevor really speaks from his heart. It really shows. Our students, my students, inspire me to be better everyday. That’s what keeps us going on the hard days, keeps us motivated on the good days. It’s just special working with these kids and their parents, the teachers, the superintendent, the board; it’s just a pleasure to work with everybody here. They call us the Harborfields family, and it really feels that way.”
Harborfields High School received a 2016 National Blue Ribbon award nomination, a distinction given to outstanding public and non-public schools by the National Blue Ribbon Schools program with the U.S. Department of Education. Winners will be selected in September, according to a release on the district website.
“Whenever Dr. Manning talks about the fact that we’ve been nominated as a Blue Ribbon school, he always talks about the students and our teachers who do amazing work,” Jones said. “He never gives himself credit. He deserves some.”
Superintendent Jim Polansky. File photo by Rohma Abbas
According to a New York State Comptroller’s report, Huntington school district has been overestimating their budget costs for the past three years.
Because of those miscalculated expenses, the recent audit says tax levies may have been greater than necessary from 2012 to 2015, resulting in the district collecting excess money from taxpayers that became surpluses in their fund balance.
“District officials consistently presented, and the board approved, budgets which overestimated expenditures for these three years,” state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s (D) report said. “As a result, district officials spent an average of approximately $4.7 million less than planned each year.”
A fund balance is the surplus of budget funds at the end of the year, which can be set aside as savings until the total reaches more than 4 percent of that year’s budget. According to the comptroller’s office, if the reserve is higher than that, the money must be spent to lower property taxes, pay for one-time expenditures or reduce debt.
To avoid exceeding that 4 percent, the district rolled over the excess fund balance with the alleged intent of using the funds to finance district operations in the next budget cycle — but according to the audit that never happened.
“Total actual revenues exceeded expenditures by as much as $4.1 million and no amount of appropriated fund balance was used to finance operations,” the audit states. “As a result, the district’s tax levy may have been higher than necessary to fund district operations.”
The comptroller’s office said that between the false rollovers and overestimated costs, Huntington school district appeared to be under the 4 percent maximum — when really it wasn’t.
“As a result, the board and district officials may not have adequately presented the district’s financial condition to its residents.”
The report recommended that the district “develop procedures to ensure it adopts more reasonable budgets to avoid raising more real property taxes than necessary.”
In a response letter to the comptroller’s office, Huntington Superintendent Jim Polansky explained his position on the report.
“Our budget is an estimated spending and revenue support plan,” Polansky said. “As such, the district will continue to appropriate fund balance at a level estimated to address a potential operating deficit, but will always strive to spend within budgetary constraints and access available revenues to offset that spending.”
Polansky cited increasing enrollment — due to the reopening of the Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School in 2013 and the opening of a housing development within district boundaries in 2014 — as the main drivers of increased budget appropriations.
School board President Tom DiGiacomo said Tuesday that the district would take all of the comptroller’s suggestions seriously.
“The administration and board have already taken and will continue to take the actions recommended by the comptroller in terms of responsibly analyzing historical trends in expenditures and revenue streams, while also considering fiscal uncertainties in particular areas,” he said in an email.
District administration and the board are in the process of drafting the budget for the 2016-17 school year. The next budget meeting is on March 21 at the Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School.
Shoreham-Wading River High School will undergo several projects to improve the facility by 2017. File photo
Shoreham-Wading River residents may see an increase in their taxes next year if the school district’s 2016-17 budget is approved.
Last week, the Shoreham-Wading River school district proposed the first part of its $71.9 million budget. Taxes will increase by 4.96 percent for those living in the district, according to Superintendent of Schools Steven Cohen.
The budget will target old and new projects that the district must complete before the end of June 2017. The district hopes to establish, renovate or replace aspects of the campus, like renovating the varsity softball field, building a scoreboard at the high school turf field and add two bathrooms in the high school. A sprinkler system for the high school soccer and field hockey fields are also among the newer projects.
The SWR district will continue with older projects from this academic year, which include plans for a disaster-recovery system for district data and replacing two overhead garage doors in the school’s maintenance garage.
Cohen added that the district will receive additional financial support to fund an AP Capstone program for the high-schoolers, decrease English class sizes to help administrators teach more effectively, organize field trips and establish an English as a New Language course.
“These are curriculum and instructional additions that we have included in this budget, and they are meant to keep the momentum going that we have developed over the last several years,” Cohen said during the budget presentation.
Last May, the board of education established plans for a new turf field, which was completed earlier this year. The project was part of the board’s initiative to improve the campus facilities. Cohen wants to continue improving the field by adding bleachers, which will offer ample seating for large events like graduations.
The SWR district budgeted to receive $10.5 million in state aid to fund these projects. Despite the statewide 0.12 percent tax cap, the district doesn’t plan on piercing it, unlike some other districts in New York state. According to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (D), 6 percent — or 36 out of 601 — school districts that have reported their proposed budgets pierced the cap as of March 2. Only 3.5 percent of districts voted to pierce the cap last year. In a press release the comptroller added, “School districts are feeling the impact of a historically low tax levy limit.”
But for Shoreham-Wading River, the cap didn’t disrupt the superintendent’s plans to better the campus.
“The heart and soul of what we are proposing this year is to really explain and start to provide the resources to pay for all the construction that’s going on,” Cohen said. “This is an idea that we talked about at great length last year in preparation for the community vote on the bond project, and now [these are the details for] providing the resources for all that work.”
Smithtown cross-country runner Matthew Tullo addresses the Board of Education with members of the team and community standing in solidarity. Photo by Alex Petroski
The Smithtown boys and girls cross-country team is facing the possibility of a split, following the release of Athletic Director Patrick Smith’s budget for 2016-17 which includes a recommendation to separate the one unified team to create individual high school East and West teams. Cross-country is one of four sports in the district that includes athletes from both East and West on one unified team. An online petition to keep the team together had more than 1,100 signatures at the time of this publication.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Smith said that Section XI, Suffolk County’s sports-governing body, encourages the district to split any combined teams within districts with multiple high schools that are not under budgetary, facility or participation constraints. Smith said that none of those factors are a problem for Smithtown cross-country at this time. He recommended splitting the teams as a means to create more opportunities for student athletes. Section XI recommends splitting teams when possible, though Smith said it is not a mandate.
“It’s based on the philosophy of the district,” Smith said. “We wanted to provide more opportunities for kids.”
Smith said allowing more athletes the chance to be starters and share in the spotlight if the teams were separated would only increase the community- and family-feel that the athletes have said they fear losing. Smith also said thinking behind the change was to provide chances for more athletes to earn interest, and ultimately scholarships, from colleges.
Members of the team and parents have attended the last two school board meetings, on Feb. 23 and Tuesday, to voice their opinions about the potential split. About 40 members of the team and the community stood in solidarity with the athletes who spoke during the public commentary period of the meeting Tuesday.
“We, as athletes, find this decision to be devastating to our sport,” sophomore runner Matthew Tullo said on Feb. 23. “Our sport has a sense of community we have created by being unified by the Smithtown team.”
Tullo addressed the board again Tuesday night.
“We just want to know why this is happening,” Tullo said. “We don’t understand it. We’re a family. We act as one. We’re closest as friends can be, and to split this up, it’s nonsense. We all, standing here, showing our support, it should be moving.”
Junior cross-country runner Samantha Catalano expressed a similar sentiment on Tuesday, suggesting that East and West are rivals in most sports. Cross-country, gymnastics, swimming and bowling are the only high school sports that have one team for the two high schools.
“The team is a family, yet it is also an identifying aspect of our community, and keeping it combined simply makes sense,” Catalano said.
The district’s Assistant Superintendent for Personnel, Karen Ricigliano, and Smith said the director plans to address the athlete’s concerns publicly at a board work session on Tuesday, March 15. The decision to split or keep the team unified will ultimately be decided by a school board vote.
Rocky Point Middle School Principal Scott O’Brien was named Administrator of the Year. Photo from Rocky Point school district
When Scott O’Brien read his favorite childhood book, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” to an elementary school class during college, he had no idea how important that moment would be to the future of his career.
“I remember reading the book to them and leaving and saying, ‘I want to do this for the rest of my life. This is what I’m meant to do,’” he said. “I think I always knew.”
The landscape architect major switched his field of study to education. Since then, the Rocky Point Middle School principal has been named Administrator of the Year by the Council of Administrators and Supervisors.
Albert Voorneveld, President of the Council of Administrators, presents Rocky Point Middle School Principal Scott O’Brien with his Administrator of the Year award. Photo from Scott O’Brien
“I love every minute of being a principal,” he said. “I feel so honored to get this, and privileged to get it, but I just love my job. I love coming to work. I love what I do, and I think it’s just an added bonus to get honored by the people that you work with, that they also feel that that love of my decisions comes through and they value what I’m doing here for them, the staff, the students and everyone in the building.”
The faculty told O’Brien of the nomination in a very unconventional way.
“They had tricked me, of course,” O’Brien said, laughing.
The principal’s staff was adamant about reminding him multiple times of a department meeting in the library one afternoon. When he entered the packed library, he knew something bigger was happening. They presented O’Brien with a wrapped box. Inside, were the nominations by each teacher who wrote a supporting statement, poem or a note of congratulations.
“Before they nominated me for the award, I was well aware that I have a very special staff,” he said. “I feel extremely fortunate to work with not only dedicated and kids-first teachers and staff, but to be able to work together with them to implement change and make our building continuously better for kids. I have reflected on that moment in the library and how grateful I am to be recognized in such a meaningful manner. The work continues and the acknowledgement further signifies the importance and continuation of my role as an educational leader.”
The principal is in his eighth year at the helm of the school, but has been in the district much longer, serving as a special education teacher, assistant principal and principal at the Frank J. Carasiti Elementary School — working in that building for more than a decade. The St. James resident, who attended the John F. Kennedy Middle School in Port Jefferson Station, also worked out-of-state for four years, in Fairfax County, Virginia. O’Brien’s grandparents lived in Rocky Point, so he said he was familiar with the area when he received his first teaching job there.
Rocky Point Middle School Principal Scott O’Brien has created a warm and inviting atmosphere at his school for both his staff and students. Photo from Scott O’Brien
Nicole Gabrinowitz, a seventh-grade math teacher who has been with the district for 20 years, said she came down from the high school the same time O’Brien arrived.
“He was very welcoming,” she said. “He’s also really open to new ideas. He knows his entire staff and works hard and uses a lot of techniques you’d use in a classroom at the staff meetings to keep us close.”
A core group of staff members came up with the idea to nominate O’Brien once they heard about the award. Melinda Brooks, the school’s instructional coordinator for six years, said she wrote in her letter of recommendation that “every single person who is employed in his building is inspired to be their very best each and every day. Each year we receive many requests from teachers who want to transfer to the middle school because they want to inspire too.”
Brooks recalled when she met O’Brien in 2010 and he was warm and welcoming.
“I immediately saw that he was one of the strongest leaders in the district,” she said. “He found his calling. He was born to do this.”
On spirit day, Brooks said the principal dressed up as Superman and his wife, Theresa, whom he met while working at the elementary school and now has three children with, had her class make him a quilt for winning the award, which was decorated with all things Superman-related.
“Everyone sees him as Superman and the kids took it quite literally,” she said. “He’s someone that has an open-door policy and is willing to listen and work with you to do what is needed and is best for the community, the teachers, the kids and everyone involved.”
Dawn Callahan, an eighth-grade social studies teacher who has worked at the school since it opened nearly 14 years ago, said O’Brien has been a refreshing change.
He also, according to many, created a strong family atmosphere, and according to Callahan, looks after the staff.
“Last year we had a student that had passed away,” she said. “Knowing that I had that student for over a year and had done home-teaching at her house before she had passed, he called me personally at home to tell me about it over the weekend, instead of me coming into school the next day and finding out about it. That to me makes you realize that the people you work for really consider this a family, as opposed to being just a job.”
She added that O’Brien gives the staff areas to grow in, and the strong vibes within the building trickle down from the top.
Rocky Point Middle School Principal Scott O’Brien, center, poses for a photo with some of his staff after earning the Administrator of the Year award. Photo from Scott O’Brien
O’Brien works to instill this in other teachers looking to become administrators. He teaches an administrative program at St. John’s University and The College of St. Rose in his free time.
“I love inspiring teachers to be future leaders and to change the culture of buildings and teach how to do that effectively,” he said, “and teach how to get a building to be able to support powerful learning for kids, and create a building that can be the best that it should be.”
His school is in the running win the Inviting School Award, which is a national award presented by the International Exchange of Educational Practices, and is based on the atmosphere he has created.
Regardless of the accolades and success he’s had in the field, O’Brien is just thankful for the experiences.
“Making decisions in the best interest of students while supporting staff in that process was my goal each year,” he said. “The relationships I have created, supported and maintained over the years with all members of the Rocky Point School community have played a pivotal role in where I am today as a leader. I’ve had such wonderful experiences, especially in Rocky Point, and it’s been such a second home to me.”
Rocky Point board of education members voice their opinions of the bond. Photo by Giselle Barkley
After Rocky Point school district’s capital projects proposal didn’t pass last year, it was back to the drawing board.
The district presented its revised capital projects proposal on March 7, showing that while the school district is keeping many projects from its previous proposal last year, the Facilities Sub-Committee cut around $4.4 million worth of projects from the previous bond proposal.
The committee, which handles the school district’s bond proposals and revisions, got rid of extra projects like artificial turf for the varsity baseball and softball fields and outside bathrooms, among other projects. However, adding air conditioning to the Joseph A. Edgar Intermediate School and Frank J. Carasiti Elementary School cafeterias and installing another means of leaving the Middle School’s nurse’s office, were added to the $16.5 million proposal.
Projects like turf fields and outside bathrooms were removed from the initial bond proposal.
The board of education said the bond is subject to change, as it may add or delete projects before it goes to a vote later this year. The bond will still target repairs and renovations to the district’s facilities, which includes, but isn’t limited to, fixing the ceilings in various areas of the schools, installing light-emitting diode lights, renovating the bathrooms, repaving the asphalt and improving security.
Smaller items like fixing a crack in the Middle School’s masonry were also factored into the bond, but Rocky Point school district Superintendent Michael Ring said this was intentionally added to the capital projects proposal.
“These are unique — unlike other special projects, these could be recipients of state aid because [of] the nature of them,” Ring said. “So if voters are going to consider a bond, it would make sense to put it in there.”
For the past three or four decades, state aid has reimbursed 70.2 percent of the school district’s project costs. This takes some pressure off taxpayers and the school district to fund the project. Ring added that mandatory projects like new security cameras, will go into the school district’s 2016-17 budget if the bond doesn’t pass. If it passes, the average homeowner with an assessed value of $2,600 will pay $74.48 a year in additional taxes over a 15-year period.
According to Rocky Point resident Bruce MacArthur, community involvement is important when it comes to passing a bond.
“We have virtually no participation right now from the community,” MacArthur said during the meeting. “[The] larger issue is how do we get the community more involved to be educated on the projects that are being proposed.”
Around 20 people, including the board of education, attended Monday’s meeting. The board and the sub-committee hope to attract more people for its future bond proposal meetings to get more community input before residents vote in favor or opposition of the bond.
“We all came to a consensus that we have to try to sell it [to residents],” said board of education President Susan Sullivan. “One of the reasons we’re meeting is because we are looking to move on this.”
Trustee Adam DeWitt resigned from Port Jeff's BOE. File photo by Elana Glowatz
A proposed policy for Port Jefferson schools could change the way teachers interact with and accommodate transgender students.
The board of education’s policy committee crafted the proposal with help from the student body’s Gay-Straight Alliance club, and included rules for how transgender and gender nonconforming students would be referenced in school records and what bathroom and locker room facilities they would use.
According to the proposed text, students who want to be identified by a gender other than the one associated with their sex at birth could request a meeting with their principal to discuss names, pronouns and designations in school records; restroom and locker room access; and participation in sports, among other topics.
Students would be able to change gender designations in school records if they provide two official forms of identification indicating the new gender and legal proof of a change in name or gender.
Emma Martin, the president of the high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, said during the Port Jefferson school board meeting on Tuesday night, “This policy could be the difference between whether a student feels safe in the school, whether their learning is hindered or it’s enriched, whether they graduate high school or even if their life could be saved.”
The proposed policy includes a provision that any student’s transgender status would be kept as private as possible, apart from necessary communication to personnel “so they may respond effectively and appropriately to issues arising in the school.”
In addition, it dictates that the district would have to accept any student’s gender identity.
“There is no medical or mental health diagnosis or treatment threshold that students must meet in order to have their gender identity recognized and respected,” the policy reads. “Every effort should be made to use the preferred names and pronouns consistent with a student’s gender identity. While inadvertent slips or honest mistakes may occur, the intentional and persistent refusal to respect a student’s gender identity is a violation of school district policy.”
Martin called the policy forward thinking.
“Even though I won’t be here to see this in place because I’m a senior — I’ll be leaving — I’m very, very proud to say that this will be in place hopefully when I leave.”
Trustee Adam DeWitt, the head of the policy committee, replied that the policy committee could not have done it without her club: “Your contributions and the students’ contributions as well as the staff were critical in the wording … so your legacy and the legacy of the students and the staff that helped us create this will live on for a long time.”
The school board accepted the policy at first reading on Tuesday and could vote to approve it, making it final, at the next board meeting. Its reception was a quiet one — there was no public comment on the policy apart from Martin’s.
That was not the case in other districts that recently attempted to make similar rules. In the Rocky Point and Smithtown school districts, discussions about accommodating transgender students turned into heated debates.
Superintendent Ken Bossert attributed the lack of controversy in Port Jefferson to the fact that the district took time to shape the policy with the help of input from many parties, and officials took up the matter on their own “without discussing any specific child.”
“That can be very sensitive when the community is fully aware of children who are involved in the discussion and that’s what I really wanted to avoid here.”
Comsewogue school board President John Swenning and Superintendent Joe Rella, along with the rest of the board and administration, have begun 2018-19 budget preparations. File photo by Alex Petroski
If Comsewogue School District wants to maintain all of its academic programs in the coming year, it’s going to need state officials to return aid that was previously taken away.
Superintendent Joe Rella released his first budget draft for the 2016-17 school year at a board of education meeting on Monday night, projecting an $87.2 million spending plan that would keep all existing programs. That budget would represent an increase of about $2 million over the current school year, due in large part to increasing costs in instruction.
But Rella’s proposed budget hinges upon a full restoration of the Gap Elimination Adjustment, a deduction of state aid taken from all New York school districts, enacted several years ago in an effort to close a state budget deficit.
State Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport),his chamber’s majority leader, recently sponsored legislation that would completely eliminate the adjustment in the next school year, though nothing is set in stone — his bill, S6377, passed in the Senate in January but has yet to come to a vote in the Assembly.
Comsewogue is not alone; school districts statewide are counting on a full restoration of the GEA this year due to a relatively low state-mandated cap on tax levy increases, which limits the amount of property taxes districts can collect and is largely determined each year by the rate of inflation. Before exemptions for a few items, such as spending on capital projects, school districts are looking at a 0.12 percent limit on how much they can add to their tax levies next year.
Comsewogue’s exempted spending, which includes funds to replace the roof at Clinton Avenue Elementary School, brings its proposed tax levy increase to 1.2 percent.
Restored state aid from the GEA could be crucial for some.
“If that doesn’t happen, then it’s a whole different world,” Rella said in an interview. “We’re anticipating it will happen. Albany’s been very quiet about it, and I’m taking that as ‘no news is good news.’”
Rella’s proposal suggests there would be cuts to staffing, including teachers, coaches and aides, as well as clubs, supplies and athletics if the schools don’t receive that additional state aid. His presentation also says Comsewogue would have to use $425,000 in reserves to help fund whatever is left.
If the state funding does come in, according to his proposal, the district would receive about $30 million in total state aid, which is an increase of $1.9 million over the current year.
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